Sneak Peek
On TIGNUM’s B-LD KITCHEN Hub, our world-class Performance Specialists share their latest insights on human performance and discuss real-life experiences and best practices with industry leaders.
Here is a limited selection for you to explore:
You are unique and so is your Sustainable Human Performance
In many ways, our individuality is both in and out of our control. By being curious about what works and doesn't work for you and taking ownership of your bio-individuality, you can positively impact your Personal Readiness.
Have you ever felt you were odd because what works for someone else doesn’t work for you? Whether it’s a nutritional strategy, an exercise regime, tips on leadership style, or managing your team, what works for one person often doesn't work for others.
We see people get super fit with one type of workout routine and falsely believe that if it worked for them, it must be good for everyone. Similarly, this same thing happens with personal growth, leadership, and so many other things. The problem is, we are all unique, and one size never fits all. Propagating this misconception even more, when we collect data on a group, the myth is that the average describes everyone in that group. As Harvard professor Todd Ross describes in his book The End of Average, not one person actually fits the average.
Many factors influence our individuality. First, we have our genetic makeup (our DNA coding) and our epigenetic factors (which genes are turned on). And then there are all of the things that impact our billions of experiences that make up our life (culture, family, society, social media, education, etc.).
In many ways, our individuality is both in and out of our control.
Performing at your best is about knowing your individual needs
Recently, I (Laura) was working with a female tennis player who was experiencing repeated low-grade injuries that were taking much longer to return to play than expected to heal. Her mood was constantly up and down, she found it difficult to make decisions in key moments, and she would report times of low energy, diminished motivation, and a sense of ‘brain fog’.
On the surface, the player appeared to be doing all the right things regarding her training and recovery balance. She appeared to be eating all the right foods and was naturally frustrated with the constant injuries stopping her from playing.
The performance team was perplexed, but through an insatiable curiosity, we kept trying to figure out why this was happening. What could be hindering recovery and causing all of these nagging injuries?
After turning over every stone, we noticed the player only having episodic menstrual cycles, which made us look at her hormone profile. Interestingly, two key hormones, estrogen and progesterone, were not at the levels they should be. Again we asked, "Why?" Knowing that what an athlete eats can influence their hormone profile, we assessed her energy expenditure and energy consumption. The findings were fascinating – she was at a 1,000-calorie deficit both during her training and competition days. In sports, this is known as Relative Energy Deficiency (RED-S). After addressing her energy balance through increasing how much and how often she ate, she started to feel more energized. As her hormone profile normalized, her mood, cognitive ability, motivation, and injury status all improved over time. Finally, she was experiencing the performance she deserved.
For us, there were many learnings. It took a lot of digging to understand her individual issues and needs, but, once again, we were reminded about just how different we all are. This experience reminded us of how crucial the sex hormones, male and female, are to our performance, both physically and cognitively. Interestingly, “normal” hormones levels can differ from person to person and differ within daily and monthly cycles.
Sex hormones are an aspect of human performance that is often overlooked, especially in the corporate world. Estrogen promotes the growth and repair of our neurons. Progesterone is involved in calming the nervous system and promoting deep sleep phases. Testosterone is key for motivation and energy, as well as bone health and muscle repair. Sometimes, when you are doing everything right (according to what is working for others), but you aren't feeling the energy and performance you want, it may be time to go deeper.
Take ownership of your performance by being curious
Is there a perfect audit to discover your own unique bio-individuality? Probably not, but increasing your awareness and asking more questions is a great way to help understand your own physiology. Looking at your performance from all angles can require experts from many different fields, but ultimately, what feels right to you is critical.
At TIGNUM, we are embarking on a journey to better understand the impact of sex hormones on the brain and physiology. Our experience shows the huge impact they have on our personal readiness, and ultimately, on our Sustainable Human Performance.
If you are feeling below optimal in any area of your performance, these questions can help initiate an individuality audit:
Is this my normal?
Are there patterns (daily, weekly, monthly, annual) to how I feel?
Why is this happening?
Where can I seek more information that will help me understand this?
By being curious about what works and doesn't work for you and taking ownership of your bio-individuality, you can positively impact your personal readiness.
So, is our individuality in our control? Yes, it is. Our habits play a big role in how that is expressed. Taking ownership is key if we are to fully step into our potential. Our hormones are a prime example of this. Over the coming months, we will continue to explore how our habits influence hormones in relation to our human performance. Stay tuned.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laura Penhaul // Chief Innovation Officer
As TIGNUM’s Chief Innovation Officer, Laura explores the latest science and innovation to support the performance of our clients. As a double world record holder from leading a team to row across the Pacific Ocean, combined with 15 years experience working in Olympic and Paralympic sports as a Physiotherapist, Laura is passionate about supporting teams and individuals to achieve their personal best.
ABOUT TIGNUM
TIGNUM is the major performance building block for business professionals, designed around a skill- and data-based approach that respects the individuality, focuses on the brain, evolves constantly, and creates lasting impact. Its international team comes from a wide range of fields, including human behavior, elite athletics, special forces, performance medicine, executive coaching, change consultants, and more.
Bringing Sustainable Human Performance to the team with Dirk-Maarten Molenaar
Work and life are not two different spheres that need to be balanced - sustainable human performance is a much more appealing and integrative approach to simply being our best version.
Dirk Maarten-Molenaar, Managing Director and Senior Partner, BCG
Sustainable Human Performance is both simple and complex at the same time. Dirk-Marten Molenaar shares how learning about Sustainable Human Performance profoundly changed his life and how he consequently introduced the concept to his teams and initiated major shifts company-wide.
He has an in-depth understanding that there is no one perfect performance strategy, but rather it differs from person to person and over time. Yet, adopting your performance strategies according to need and context should never mean letting them drop, no matter how turbulent the times. Why? If you are a paid thinker, like many of us are, you should never compromise on your own brain power.
ABOUT TIGNUM THOUGHTCAST
TIGNUM ThoughtCast is a series of short interviews in which TIGNUM co-founder Scott Peltin sits down with friends, clients, and human performance experts to explore the application of Sustainable Human Performance.
Stay energized and focused during a job transition
Starting a new role or job is an exciting time that takes planning and preparation. By default, the transition comes with challenges that can test your self-belief and bring about fatigue. Stay on top of your game during these times of change by defining your non-negotiable strategies to keep your energy and focus high.
Whether you’ve earned a promotion, moved to a new organization, or taken on new responsibility in your current job, new roles start with celebration, excitement, and a sense of accomplishment. Rightfully so - you've earned it. Few things satiate the human brain like being recognized for your talent and experience and being given an opportunity to grow into a role with higher visibility, reach, and impact. Often, this same excitement and gratitude is the very thing that sabotages performance during the transition period, leading to a tidal wave of self-doubt, fear, and uncertainty.
How could that be?
The “dual-role” period
In most cases, a transition involves an onboarding period of learning new systems, building relationships with new stakeholders, finding clarity around expectations, and building your strategy. At the same time, you’re typically asked to continue to ensure that all of your old responsibilities are taken care of and the person taking over is set up for success. You effectively now have two roles.
If you’re moving to an entirely new company, you won’t have a dual role, but you will have a lot more heavy lifting to do with onboarding. Similarly, you will likely have to make significant changes to the structure of your day, move to a new location, leave old colleagues behind, and establish a new tempo. Failing to account for this doubled cognitive and emotional load and setting an unsustainable pace to learn and prove yourself to others are the leading causes of over-fatigue during these periods.
Commonly, this fatigue can lead to brain fog, feeling out of control, self-doubt, and reflexive, often destructive behaviors. This can be avoided by building a recovery plan for your transition and continuously building your self-belief.
Build a plan to keep your cognitive capacity high
When starting a new job, there will always be many things out of your control. In order to show up at your best, reduce fatigue, and regain the feeling of control, a great approach is to control the start and the end of your day. Within these two windows, you can define the non-negotiable strategies you will use to sharpen your focus, build your energy stores, proactively prepare for your day, and build in your recovery moments.
So what is your start-of-the-day plan? How can you prime your mindset, feed your brain, move to activate your nervous system, and focus yourself to multiply others' energy?
Similarly, what is your end-of-day plan? How can you shut down from a busy day, create a natural melatonin (sleep hormone) release, capture your key learnings from the day, and calm your nervous system for sleep?
Make self-belief building an ongoing practice
With any new role comes self-doubt. While we could write books about building authentic self-belief, here are a few quick suggestions to help you.
First, reflect on other moments in your life where you've had similar transitions, experienced but overcame self-doubt, and moved forward to succeed.
Second, at the end of each day, write down a few things you did well, a couple of things you want to do better, and one thing you learned.
Finally, prepare - prepare - prepare. Nothing builds true self-belief like preparing for a big meeting, building recovery into your preparation, and setting clear intentions.
Transitioning to a new role is a challenging but exciting time if you can avoid putting your head down and going into wing-it mode with your Sustainable Human Performance. By creating your transition recovery plan and continually practicing self-belief building, you can regain control and multiply your readiness to take on the challenges that lie ahead.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jake Marx // Head of Performance Coaching
Jake is the Head of Performance Coaching for TIGNUM. He is responsible for finding, developing, preparing, and growing all TIGNUM Performance Specialists. He is an experienced Sustainable Human Performance coach to many top senior executives.
ABOUT TIGNUM
TIGNUM is the major performance building block for business professionals, designed around a skill- and data-based approach that respects the individuality, focuses on the brain, evolves constantly, and creates lasting impact. Its international team comes from a wide range of fields, including human behavior, elite athletics, special forces, performance medicine, executive coaching, change consultants, and more.
Growing on the go
Too often we think the limiting factor to our personal growth is time. In reality, the more experiences we encounter, the more opportunities we have to learn.
Time is a precious commodity – and I think we all feel at one point or another that we don’t have enough time. This is especially true in our busy business world, where we’re pulled in many directions every day. We’re asked to put out fires that have sparked overnight, then pulled in many unexpected directions while managing our normal workload, and then we’re working hard to innovate and create the new ideas of tomorrow. This can cause us to feel guilty for not having enough time for our own personal growth. At best, we may try to squeeze in a podcast or read the latest journal article, but often this only adds to an already overwhelmed brain. So, how do we find the time to reflect and grow?
Reflection turns our days into lessons
Recently, a client shared with me a unique way to effortlessly squeeze in some reflection time so he could ‘grow on the go’. Instead of always feeling the compulsion for taking in more information, could he experience growth by simply reflecting on the valuable, yet often overlooked, lessons within his chaotic days? He shared with me a practice that he called ‘Red Light Reflection’. He said, “I use red lights as a trigger to switch my brain into reflection mode. This is where I quickly reflect on the successes and challenges of my day’s events, my newest learnings, and the feelings I am experiencing. During my 50-minute commute, I can get many of these short but helpful reflection moments.”
Is a red light magical? No. But it is a trigger and a consistent, 3-minute break that we get during a commute. Where else can we find such a reminder to simply reflect? Perhaps during our morning coffee, or taking our dog for a walk. Maybe it’s waiting in line for a meal, or sitting while waiting for an appointment. So often we get dragged back to our iPhone, that computer in our pocket that keeps us handcuffed to work, and we overlook these short, yet powerful, moments where we can reflect and grow.
It only takes a moment to grow
Too often we think the limiting factor to our personal growth is time. In reality, the more experiences we encounter, the more opportunities we have to learn. This, of course, requires that we capture that special moment before life’s clutter invades our reflection space.
In a world of volatility, it’s often in these quiet moments of reflection that we most consistently give ourselves the necessary time and space to develop our mindset skills, challenge our biases, refine our character, and reframe the dramas of the day. It’s in these moments that we effectively ‘grow on the go’.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chris Males // Managing Director, Americas and APAC
As TIGNUM's Managing Director of the Americas and APAC, Chris is an experienced Sustainable Human Performance coach to many CEO’s, C-suite executives, and professional athletes. In 2020, Chris was inducted into the MG100 Coaches program, an organization of some the best executive coaches, leaders and business thinkers from around the world.
ABOUT TIGNUM
TIGNUM is the major performance building block for business professionals, designed around a skill- and data-based approach that respects the individuality, focuses on the brain, evolves constantly, and creates lasting impact. Its international team comes from a wide range of fields, including human behavior, elite athletics, special forces, performance medicine, executive coaching, change consultants, and more.
The Key Ingredients for Dynamic Culture Building with Sandy Ogg
In this conversation Sandy Ogg (Founder, CEO Works) shares his insights on the future of work as it relates to matching talent to value and the impact that Sustainable Human Performance makes on that talent.
Sandy Ogg, Founder, CEO Works
"Change hits, value shifts, money moves. We need to be continuously adapting to what's going on around us. This can be exhausting and mind-numbing if you don't have the habits of Sustainable High Performance."
Sandy Ogg has spent 30+ years working and learning with Fortune 500 executives around the world. His experience and success in Human Resources led him to develop Connecting Talent to Value™, a methodology that helps organizations bend the value curve by getting the right people in the right jobs.
When we first met Sandy as CHRO of Unilever, he had a simple and surprising request: to be able to play catch with his son into his 70s. In this conversation with Scott Peltin, he shares his insights on the future of work as it relates to matching talent to value and the impact that Sustainable Human Performance makes on that talent.....He also shares an update on his fastball.
ABOUT TIGNUM THOUGHTCAST
TIGNUM ThoughtCast is a series of short interviews in which TIGNUM co-founder Scott Peltin sits down with friends, clients, and human performance experts to explore the application of Sustainable Human Performance.
How Choices Create Perseverance with Jeff Rosenblum
In this episode, Scott Peltin talks with serial entrepreneur and high performance culture-builder, Jeff Rosenblum (Partner, FB Capital Partners).
Listen as Jeff shares his mindset around creating habits by focusing on the benefits he seeks and identifying the choices he can make to achieve them.
Jeff Rosenblum, Partner, FB Capital Partners
In this episode, Scott Peltin talks with serial entrepreneur and high performance culture-builder, Jeff Rosenblum. Listen as Jeff shares his mindset around creating habits by focusing on the benefits he seeks and identifying the choices he can make to achieve them.
He shares several fascinating examples of using this approach to tackle challenges including:
challenging his fears through his workouts
overcoming Guillain-Barre' Syndrome in part by focusing on giving energy to his caregivers
using his recovery period to reinvent himself
ABOUT TIGNUM THOUGHTCAST
TIGNUM ThoughtCast is a series of short interviews in which TIGNUM co-founder Scott Peltin sits down with friends, clients, and human performance experts to explore the application of Sustainable Human Performance.
The Opinion Pause: Using Humility and Curiosity to Think More Critically
The opinion pause is a great way to build your Performance Mindset and multiply the energy of those around you. It makes you smarter, makes others less defensive, and helps you think at a deeper level.
In today’s highly connected world, it is easy to quickly share your opinions. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter - all designed for the rapid viral spread of information. We could fill books with the reputation damage one flippant response to the wrong person at the wrong time can make, but let’s focus on the impact it has on your ability to be mentally agile, resilient, energized, and a multiplier of energy.
When you reflexively form and share an opinion, you rely 100% on a bias that you have previously created based on a multitude of historic contributing factors. By doing this, you are destroying the Performance Mindset skills of challenging your biases, having a growth mindset, being open-minded, and being curious. You are robbing your brain of the opportunity to ask more questions and to do more research to update your thinking with the latest knowledge. You are building the walls around your “fixed” mindset, which reduces the expansion of your “growth” mindset.
Less opinionated means better critical thinking
As we have discussed many times, curiosity is the Performance Mindset skill that leads to openness, growth, new knowledge, innovation, and meaningful relationships. By asking great questions, you create a pause that allows you to learn and challenge what you may think you already know.
Similarly, when you quickly form an opinion and openly share it, you are diminishing the skill of humility. By forcibly being so opinionated, you are skipping the vital step of critical thinking, which is to ask yourself, “What if I’m wrong?” Humility tears down walls and provides an opening for people to approach you and create a relationship. It is vital for collaboration.
From a Sustainable Human Performance standpoint, when you quickly form and share your opinions, you are emphatically expressing that you are right, and that’s the end of the discussion. It forces your brain into defense mode and creates defensiveness in those around you.
Challenge your opinions to create deeper understanding
Sustainable Human Performers make another choice. Instead of hitting the send button, they hit the pause button (in their brain). They stop and consider the opinion of others (the intentions, the intensity, the knowledge, etc.). Then they ask themselves, “What do I think about this issue, and why do I think that?” In the pause, they examine this answer and ask other questions like, “What if I’m wrong?” “What am I not seeing? “If I were in their shoes, how would I see it?” “How can I learn more about this topic to challenge my own belief?”
The opinion pause is a great way to build your Performance Mindset and multiply the energy of those around you. It makes you smarter, makes others less defensive, and helps you think at a deeper level. In addition, it reduces your stress response and builds your compassion, empathy, patience, and listening skills. Sustainable Human Performance doesn’t happen by chance; it’s a choice, and choosing the opinion pause may be a good one for us all.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Scott Peltin // Co-Founder and Chief Catalyst
As the Co-Founder and Chief Catalyst of TIGNUM, Scott has coached many top CEOs, executives, professional athletes, and others to Rule Their Impact. Scott’s unique blend of his 25 years in the Fire Service, education, and coaching experience helps him combine the art and science of Sustainable High Impact to help TIGNUM clients be better, for longer, when it counts the most.
ABOUT TIGNUM
TIGNUM is the major performance building block for business professionals, designed around a skill- and data-based approach that respects the individuality, focuses on the brain, evolves constantly, and creates lasting impact. Its international team comes from a wide range of fields, including human behavior, elite athletics, special forces, performance medicine, executive coaching, change consultants, and more.
On Oscillation
Our TIGNUM performance experts discuss the importance of integrating purposeful recovery breaks into our days and years. They share ideas on powerful micro-breaks and how even 30 seconds can change the game.
Leaders and executives do well to recognize the value of recovery- oscillation is a strategic must for high performance at work.
TIGNUM Performance Specialists Chris Males, Brian Wade, Jake Marx, and Scott Peltin
In this roundtable our TIGNUM performance experts discuss the importance of integrating purposeful recovery breaks into our days and years. They share ideas on powerful micro-breaks and how even 30 seconds can change the game. Leaders and executives do well to recognize the value of recovery. Oscillation is a strategic must for high performance at work.
Nobody takes a pit-stop at the end of a race, it happens in the race to be ready for whats coming next.
ABOUT TIGNUM
TIGNUM is the major performance building block for business professionals, designed around a skill- and data-based approach that respects the individuality, focuses on the brain, evolves constantly, and creates lasting impact. Its international team comes from a wide range of fields, including human behavior, elite athletics, special forces, performance medicine, executive coaching, change consultants, and more.
Unleashing People to do Their Life's Best Work with Debb Bubb
Dedicated people with high expectations can amplify their impact both at work and at home. It works both directions. Deb Bubb (Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer, Optum) shares how becoming a better mother, wife, daughter, sister, and friend made her a better leader at work.
Deb Bubb, Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer, Optum
"Everybody is somebody's somebody."
Deb Bubb's long track record of thought leadership in human resources, leadership, and talent development is well documented. On her journey from Intel, to IBM, to United Healthcare, to her current role as CHRO at Optum, she's made an incredible impact.
In this conversation with Scott Peltin, she shares:
Why dedicated people with high expectations can amplify their impact with Sustainable High Performance strategies.
How becoming a better mother, wife, daughter, sister, and friend made her a better leader at work.
The key question many women are asking themselves as we exit the pandemic.
The new strategies she deployed to stop feeling like she is "burning the candle at both ends."
How she infuses Sustainable Human Performance into her family.
ABOUT TIGNUM THOUGHTCAST
TIGNUM ThoughtCast is a series of short interviews in which TIGNUM co-founder Scott Peltin sits down with friends, clients, and human performance experts to explore the application of Sustainable Human Performance.